Ben Stokes will join Test cricket’s 100-cap club when he captains England against India in Rajkot on Thursday.
We look at some of the all-rounder’s most memorable performances in the five-day game:
120 vs Australia, Perth, December 2013
Stokes provided England with a rare highlight during a miserable 2013-14 Ashes with a gutsy fourth-innings hundred against an impressive Australia pace attack that came just months after England coach Andy Flower had warned he was wasting his talent following some wayward behaviour on a second-string Lions trip.
101 vs New Zealand, Lord’s, May 2015
Injuries, a lack of form and uncertainty over his role meant Stokes’ Test career was becoming a stop-start affair. But he responded to being promoted to No 6 in the batting order with two dashing innings, a rescue act of 92 followed by an 85-ball hundred – the quickest in a Test at Lord’s. He then dismissed Kane Williamson and Brendon McCullum, now England’s coach, with successive deliveries in an England win.
6-36 vs Australia, Trent Bridge, August 2015
Stokes’ batting may be his stronger suit but this match demonstrated his worth, when fully fit, as a bowler and in the field. His superb one-handed catch to dismiss Adam Voges helped paceman Stuart Broad to a headline-grabbing return of 8-15 as Australia collapsed to 60 all out. And it was Stokes who sealed victory with an excellent second-innings display of swing bowling as England regained the Ashes.
258 vs South Africa, Cape Town, January 2016
Coming in with England faltering at 167-4, Stokes struck the second-fastest Test double century of all time, off just 163 balls. Stokes hit 30 fours and 11 sixes in total and also shared a partnership of 399 with Jonny Bairstow (150*) that remains the highest sixth-wicket stand in Test history. Michael Atherton, a former England captain, said of Stokes’ innings: “In terms of sustained hitting, the demolition of an entire attack, I haven’t seen anything like it before.”
135* vs Australia, Headingley, August 2019
Just over a year after being acquitted of affray in a court case that threatened his career and some six weeks on from his World Cup final heroics, Stokes played arguably his greatest innings. Following England’s woeful first-innings 67 all out, Stokes atoned with an arduous return of 3-56 and then somehow managed to get England to a victory target of 359. Having carefully played himself in, Stokes – with just last man Jack Leach for company, hit out in spectacular fashion to secure a scarcely credible one-wicket win.
103 vs South Africa, Old Trafford, August 2022
Stokes’ reign as captain alongside coach McCullum started with four straight wins. Their ‘Bazball’ approach was criticised, however, following a defeat by South Africa at Lord’s. But Stokes, again showing how he could pace an innings, helped turn things around with a composed hundred in Manchester and also took top-order wickets in both of South Africa’s innings as England returned to winning ways.
© Agence France-Presse
